Elections to the School Management Committees (SMCs) of Delhi government schools will be held on Saturday, with parents of students voting to elect other parents to represent them.
12 positions
As mandated by the Right to Education Act, 2009, which says three-fourth of the members must be parents or guardians, the parents of students of 1,029 government schools will cast their votes for 12 positions reserved for parents in the 16-member committees. The two-year term of the SMCs elected in 2015 has ended.
Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia said the involvement of the community and parents in keeping school authorities accountable had proved to be the most effective reform.
“Parents of children are naturally the most invested stakeholders in schools and they have successfully used the SMC platform to improve the condition of schools,” said Mr. Sisodia.
In order to make the process smooth, the Education Department will deploy ad-hoc DANICS officers and superintendents as observers for the polling, which will take place from 8 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. in morning shift schools and from 1 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. in evening shift schools.
Atishi Marlena, advisor to Mr. Sisodia, said a large number of nominations had been received in many schools. For instance, she said, 41 and 38 nominations had been received for the 12 posts each at schools in Mayur Vihar Phase-I and Trilokpuri respectively. Letters were sent to parents last week and nominations were accepted till Thursday.
